


Impatient

by avianscribe



Series: Collection of Prompts [15]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Pre-Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29686494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avianscribe/pseuds/avianscribe
Summary: Nyx doesn't like waiting, especially when it's for payout of a joke.
Relationships: Crowe Altius & Nyx Ulric, Libertus Ostium & Nyx Ulric, Titus Drautos | Glauca & Nyx Ulric
Series: Collection of Prompts [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1432558
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	Impatient

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whythekwehnot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whythekwehnot/gifts).



> From my call for prompts on Twitter! Shell gave the prompt "Impatient", character Nyx. I have never written Nyx before, so this was an adventure! Here you go!

“This is _stupid,_ Nyx,” Libertus groaned. 

“Good lookouts don’t _whine,”_ Nyx answered as he slipped into the shower stall. He just had to sort through the toiletries, and -- There! 

He rifled through the bottles and pulled out the one that said “shampoo.” Then he quickly dumped half its contents down the drain and pulled a brightly-colored tube from his pocket. The tube of hair dye was probably half the size of the shampoo bottle, but that didn’t matter, as long as the pink goodness was on top, and the first thing to come out when Drautos came in here to shower. 

Nyx squeezed all the contents of the tube into the shampoo bottle and screwed the top back onto it. Then he slotted it back into the toiletries, trying as best as he could to make it look completely undisturbed.

“Uh, someone’s comin’,” Libertus hissed. 

“We’re good,” Nyx said, and tugged Libertus with him away to another part of the showers -- out of Drautos’s private dressing room, at least -- before anyone could catch them. (Libertus made it harder by complaining the whole time, but Nyx couldn’t really blame him, after all the trouble Nyx had already dragged them both into in past months.)

* * *

Two days later, and… no sign of Drautos in pink. That dye was supposed to be semi-permanent. There’s no way Drautos could have gotten it out of his hair that quickly, especially the way he was going grey. 

Nyx spent the meeting worrying at his hangnails, enough that Crowe noticed. He caught her eyeing him, and she raised an eyebrow at him in question. He just shook his head at her. He didn’t want to admit anything to her; she’d just chew him out for being an idiot.

(He was probably an idiot.)

When Drautos released them all (without saying anything about pranksters in their ranks) Nyx made a beeline for the door, knowing that Crowe was going to corner him to get him to explain. (There was nothing to explain.) He didn’t want to have to talk to her, especially with the low-level frustration rising.

Instead, he went to the training grounds to blow things up. Just a bit. Let off some steam. Literally. 

He wasn’t frustrated. Not at all.

* * *

Crowe tracked him down later and pulled him to the Little Niflheim district for kebabs, and he didn’t say no. She also didn’t ask anything, and he thought that was awfully kind of her.

* * *

Nyx was looking forward to the next day’s briefing, if ONLY because maybe _this time_ Drautos would show up with pink hair. He even had the perfect one-liner to celebrate. But Drautos strode in, his hair just as grizzled and ordinary as usual, and Nyx ground his teeth while he smiled and said nothing, and endured the briefing as usual. 

After the briefing, he slipped into Drautos’s private little shower area and checked the shampoo bottle. Pink oozed out onto his hand. So no one had found it yet; it’s not like he’d been detected. So he guessed Drautos just… hadn’t used it. In three days. 

Nyx slipped out again, no one else the wiser.

* * *

On the fourth day, when Drautos was _still_ un-pinked, Nyx pulled Libertus aside. “Does he just… not use that shower?” 

“Oh, he uses it, all right,” Libertus said. “Y’just need to be patient. The Captain has a full schedule; he just doesn’t always have time to train here.”

“Then where _does_ he train?”

“Beats me,” Libertus shrugged. “Just… hold out a bit. Give it a week or so before you keel over. You’re too impatient.”

“I’m not impatient,” Nyx snapped. “It’s just… the longer this goes on, the more chances someone’s gonna find out before we get that sweet, sweet payoff.”

Libertus sighed and rolled his eyes.

Nyx still took his advice, and tried to chill. 

* * *

On the fifth day, Drautos was still his grizzled self, and Nyx was about to climb the walls. Crowe kept looking at him funny, so he did his best to hold it in, but it wasn’t working very well. She cornered him during his afternoon shift, and folded her arms.

“What’s _up_ with you lately?” she said. “You’re antsier than a sabertusk with burrs on its face.”

It was useless to try to pull one over on Crowe. She was just too savvy for her own good. 

Nyx tried anyway. 

“Nothing,” he said. “I’m just excited to get home; got a lot of quality TV to watch.”

“Uh huh, sure,” she said. “What kind of trouble are you getting into?” 

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “Luche might fall for that,” she said, “but I know you too well.” 

“Excuse me, but I have some important business to attend to.”

“Yeah, like standing here in this hallway on guard duty.” 

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” 

Crowe snorted. “I suppose I do. Just don’t get anyone killed.”

“If he gets anyone killed,” Libertus called from the other end of the hall, “it’ll be himself!” 

They had to shut up then, because Clarus Amicitia entered the hall, with the King close behind him. Crowe straightened and offered the appropriate bow as they passed. Then she gave Nyx a look and then left him alone.

Finally.

* * *

On the sixth day, Drautos was gone.

He was summoned, with a small command team, to a hot spot on the front. Everyone found out at the morning muster, after the team had already left. 

“What did you expect?” Luche said, when he overheard Nyx complaining about it to Libertus. “He’s got a war to run. He can’t stay here _all_ the time.” 

“I’m not _stupid,”_ Nyx retorted. “Just… surprised.” And disappointed, but he wasn’t about to tell _Luche_ that.

“So are we all,” Luche said, “but these things happen, don’t they?” 

Yeah, of course they did. Nyx didn’t have to be happy about it. Now he’d have to wait until Drautos came back from the front before getting that sweet, sweet payoff. 

Nyx hated waiting.

* * *

The command team was gone for a _full two weeks._ Long enough that Nyx had nearly forgotten his prank altogether.

In fact, he _had_ forgotten. Completely.

Until after his morning workout, as he was scrubbing his hair dry post-shower, and a roaring bellow echoed through the locker room. Libertus dropped his gear bag with a startled curse, and a murmur rose, but it couldn’t cover up the stomp of approaching boots, or Drautos’s voice when he yelled, _“Whoever did this will be cleaning the Crownsguard latrines for a month!”_

From the corner of his eye, Nyx caught sight of half-clad Drautos, shirtless and fuming and clutching his bottle of shampoo, as he stormed past the end of the aisle. It was hard _not_ to see him, considering the brilliant fuchsia shade of his hair, and the brilliant angry red of his face.

Nyx was impressed. He’d never seen a dye set with quite that intensity. He nonchalantly draped his towel over his head, grabbed his gear, and walked the opposite direction, with a whistle on his lips and a new spring in his steps.


End file.
